Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
essay about philippine architecture
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: essay about philippine architecture
Philippine
Ethnic Architecture
- Ethnic culture lies on Phil. Architecture, an amalgam on Anglo-Saxon, Latin, Indian, Chinese, Japanese & other foreign influences with sensibility of Pre-Hispanic, Pre-Western & Southeast Asian. Its Ethos’s is linked with elements and creatures. It draws inspiration from environment. It also responds to man’s communal and social needs.
General Characteristics
- Ethnic Structures are made of natural materials such as wood, vegetations & sometimes molds. The favorite material is bamboo, which is used for doors, flooring siding, roofing & many others.
It is informal and usually designed by the owner itself and executed with manpower provided by his family and the community. Often influenced first by tradition, second by chance.
Most ethnic houses conform to a general pattern: have steep thatched roofs to facilitate drainage; elevated on posts or stilts and have slanted flooring. The result is generally a comfortable and functional, yet durable and structurally stable.
Decorations are aesthetics and socio-politico-religious factors. Pig skulls and carabao horns for instance in Ifugao to indicate social position.
It is at modest proportions as it is used essentially as a shelter from the elements and as a place to cook, eat and sleep. At other times, the house doubles as a social and cultural center. It becomes the setting for weddings, wakes, death anniversaries, religious rites and other life-cycle celebrations.
Ethnic architecture can be classified using four different considerations:
1. According to structural methods used
2. According to use or function
3. According to historical period
4. According to cultural groups or people
Types of Structures in History
- Ethnic architecture has evolved in response to changes in time and history.
Cave dwellings were perhaps the earliest shelters in the Philippines. The next stage of evolution of ethnic architecture was marked by the appearance of the “lean-to”, the first attempt at building. The practice of kaingin gave rise to a more settled life in a real house. But durability was not a major concern. The introduction of wet rice agriculture brought about a truly settled life and a need for a more permanent dwelling. The bahay kubo, the dwelling of the lowland, christianized populace had already been established even before the Spaniards came.
Because of different environments, upland and lowland houses developed interesting contrasts. Lowland houses have more open, airy interiors, while upland ones are more tightly enclosed.
Special types of houses developed in various parts of the Philippines. In Sulu archipelago, houses were built over water.
The original building was made of sticks and straw, but these building materials made it an easy victim of Indian attacks. The missionaries wanted to make life in the mission communities be comparable to that of villages in Spain. The missionaries taught Indians specific jobs such as carpentry, masonry, and stone cutting to make buildings. The Espada was one of the first missions to make brick, which can still found today.
When researching Pueblo dwellings and the Anasazi people "Anasazi meaning ancient ones in the Navajo language"(Lynnd2012). Information retaining to the culture and how permanent dwellings did not start until the Anasazi started growing their food. Prior to agriculture, all food was product of hunting and gathering, this made moving across the country more frequent to be able to gather enough food. Once they started to farm and cultivate they stated building the first sets of housing which consisted of holes in the grounds and only later would they build on top of the holes with stone and mortar, this didn't happen till around 750AD and was a means for storage.
...humash houses were hemispherical in shape and as large as 55 feet in diameter. They were constructed of arched poles covered with grass. Typically several families within the tribe shared one dwelling. Members slept on raised beds separated by hanging mats to offer privacy. Mats were also used as doors to keep the dwelling separated from the outside elements. A fireplace was present in the center of the structure to provide heat while a circular vent in the ceiling allowed for the smoke to escape. The houses were arranged clustered together in the village to provide for security and community. Shelter was a vital part of Chumash survival. They provided shelter from the elements as well as a sense of unity within the village.
-people who live in urban areas usually live in an Arab-style white house made of stone/brick covered with plaster/cement
One of the most important structures to the Native American tribes of Western New York is the longhouse. This structure built only of wood. These structures allowed for these people to stay warm throughout winters that could be as harsh as any we have seen. The masterly crafted houses provided warmth in the winter and in the summers allowed for the air to flow through and keep the house cool. Without these houses, the tribes of New York would not have survived.
There are three distinct classes of houses in the tenement-houses; the cheapest is the attic home. Three rooms is next and is usually for very poor people. The vast majority of respectable working people live in four rooms. Each of these classes reflects the needs and resources of the renters in that the attic home, for example, is generally one small room and is usually rented out by a lonely elderly person with not much money. Three rooms generally consist of a kitchen and two dark bedrooms and are usually rented out to very poor people who have a family. Four rooms generally consist of a kitchen, two dark bedrooms, and a parlor and are usually rented out by respectable, hard working families.
Each village had a town square at its center with seats where spectators could sit.The town square was used for ceremonies and games. Each village had a circular town house with clay walls and a cone shaped bark roof about 25 feet high. This was a ceremonial lodge and was also used for shelter for the homeless. Some town houses were smaller with a slanted bark roof only about 10 feet high. The most common house had a slanted bark roof with the roof about 7 feet high these were used for individual families, it held about, four to five people in it.. Each family had a summer and winter house both were packed with mud. The summer house was often used as a guest house for when visitors came to visit. They also owned their own granary which was half open and they also had a warehouse which was open on all four sides similar to a chickee.
A Navaho house is called a Hogan and is made of logs, brush, and earth. Summerhouses are also utilized and made of brush with a windbreak.
The furnishings found in each hut also provide indications of how the people lived. In the centre of all the huts lay a fireplace that is thought to be the only source of heat and light in the entire hou...
The houses that the Apache lived in were called wickiup. They were domed shaped with large wooden poles. The tops were covered with brush and grass, or reed mats. At the top of the house there were smoke holes. The Apache also lived in tee-pees, because they were always on the move. The roles of the men in the tribes consisted of hunting and gathering and the women gathered food, wood, and water.
area. Every house had to have a bucket to put out fires, a safe room
According to the encyclopedia of Native Americans, the Chinook tribe lived in large rectangular houses with cedar plank walls and sleepy slopes roofs. They also lived along the shore of the Columbia river in Western WA. Another fact from the encyclopedia of Native Americans is the Chinook tribe used wood as their basic building material. On the other hand , the encyclopedia of Native Americans also says that the Nez Perce tribs replaced their pit houses with tile , the tile houses were covered with plant material and their climate was dry and rugged. This shows that the Chinook and Nez Perce tribe both used some type of wood to build their
Homes are normally based on a solitary level with an edge rooftop. Houses in the more swarmed urban communities frequently have two or more stories and mirror an European impact. A great many people lived in single-family homes until the relocation to urban focuses in the late 1940’s and mid 1950’s. The requirement for satisfactory lodging induced the legislature to put resources into high-masses of open lodging activities amid the mid 1950’s. In the poorer territories, huge families live in little houses developed from ash squares and secured with an adobe made of mud, bovine compost, and
The following paper is made for the purpose of publicizing an issue as important and historic as it is "Maya Architecture",the characteristics of the Mayan architecture. Mayan architectural elements, ceremonial platforms, pyramids, Temple, cresting, Orientation, Maya Vault, Stele, Glyph, Urban Design, Building Materials, Construction Process, Regional Architectural Styles. The Mayan architecture is the richest in the New World, because of the complexity and variety of means of expression. Structures gigantic limestone stucco covered were his hallmark.
A home, many people spent their whole life in search of his or her home. It has many different definitions to different people. To some people it may be their home country, to some it may be where they were born, to some it may be where their family is. home's most basic trait is its ability to provide shelter from weather. Rain or snow, a house will always be there to shield the elements from the family. In the cold times of the year, the heater will be there to warm the house. The heat of the summer is no problem for a good home. The ideal dwelling definitely must have a dependable central air conditioner. When located in an area abundant with tornadoes and hurricanes, a home must have a safe place. A storm shelter or a basement is an excellent place to hide. But to most people home has more meaning than just dwelling it should be a place where their family is, where they could have family times together.